November 6, 2007

I'm Telling You, Humans, The Robots Are Coming For Our Kids

And when they enslave us, it'll be through cutesy friendliness, not Decepticon-like terror. That'll come later.

"We expected that after a few hours, the magic was going to fade," Movellan says. "That's what has been found with earlier robots." But, in fact, the kids warmed to the robot over several weeks, eventually interacting with QRIO in much the same way they did with other toddlers.

My 2 year old boys will say "night night" to their toy cars, and hug an ornamental lawn bag with a pumpkin face on it.

I also asked them to design a face for their pumpkin in a fashion akin to a 'flip book' utilizing various eye / nose / mouth shapes, and after playing with various combinations for awhile, one simply asked for a "Bobot!"

For the last two weeks, he keeps running up to the front window yelling "BOBOT PUNKIN! BOBOT PUNKIN!" and checking to ensure that it's still there. Pumpkin recycling day is going to be a tricky one to get around, I think.

My point is that 2 year old kids will associate with anything, and at least some kids seem to be predisposed to think that robots are awesome anyways. So this study isn't as earthbreaking as it seems, at first blush.

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